Bear, Delaware

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the New Castle census division. It lies in ZIP code area 19701. The Survey maps it on the Newark East quadrangle. 23,060 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 69 feet above sea level.

Bear within New Castle County

On record in Bear

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

White Halllisted 1990

Population over time

3 figures

Bear grew from 17,593 to 23,060 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2000	17,593
2010	19,371	+1,778 (+10%)
2020	23,060	+3,689 (+19%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 32 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1904 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:62500
1906 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
1919 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1946 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1953 USGS Newark East quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
1955 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1959 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1966 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1972 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1984 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1993 USGS Newark East quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Bear: 10 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Sulfur. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Delaware Plant Getty	Sulfur	Plant
Delaware Brick Co. Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Delaware Brick Co. Pit and Mill	Clay	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Constructors Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Delaware Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Delaware Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Freeway Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Freeway Sand Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Route 40 Farm	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Whittington Sand & Gravel Pit & Mil	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in New Castle County

Storms near this place

23 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bear in 23 storm reports between 2000 and 2021: 12 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 2 lightning, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2009	Lightning	Bear	$125,000	A lightning strike caused a townhouse fire on Creekside Court in the Christine Hollow Development in Bear. The fire burned the roof of the townhouse and adjacent townhouses also suffered minor damage. The townhome residents were displaced. Damage was estimated at $125,000.
June 2004	Lightning	Bear	$5,000	no account filed
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	Several reports of downed tree limbs and power lines in the area. Time estimated from radar.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	Large tree limbs came down in Bear. Time estimated from radar.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	Smalleys Dam Road closed between Rivers End Drive and Walk Drive from downed wires.
August 2016	Flood	Bear	-	Some flooding was reported on route 40 near the railroad tracks.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	A severe thunderstorm knocked down a few trees and wires in Bear (New Castle Hundred).
June 2013	Hail	Bear	-	Penny size hail fell from a thunderstorm in Bear.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	A severe thunderstorm knocked down several trees in Bear.
June 2012	Hail	Bear	-	In addition to damaging winds, a severe thunderstorm dropped penny size hail in Bear.
August 2011	Hail	Bear	-	Quarter size hail fell from a severe thunderstorm in Bear (New Castle Hundred).
November 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	A Skywarn Spotter measured a wind gust of 65 mph during a severe thunderstorm in Bear.
May 2010	Hail	Bear	-	Quarter size hail fell from a severe thunderstorm in Bear.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	The same severe thunderstorm knocked down trees in Bear.
June 2010	Hail	Bear	-	Nickel to half dollar size hail fell in Bear.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	A Skywarn Spotter measured a wind gust to 62 mph in Bear.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	A severe thunderstorm knocked a few trees down in Bear.
September 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	A Skywarn Spotter measured a wind gust of 59 mph in Bear.
July 2008	Hail	Bear	-	A Skywarn spotter reported penny size hail in Bear. The same thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 55 mph in Delaware City.
August 2008	Hail	Bear	-	A severe thunderstorm dropped nickel size hail from Bear northeast through New Castle. The large hail shredded leaves off of trees.
October 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Bear	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Bear	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in New Castle County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Pigeon Run	0.4 miles	32
Glendale	0.6 miles	32
Rivers End	0.6 miles	32
Kinston Acres	0.6 miles	32
Centennial Village	0.7 miles	32
Princeton Wood II	0.8 miles	32
Kings Croft	0.8 miles	32
Moores Acres	0.8 miles	32

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Bear	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q755632	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 216026. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.